18 April 2012

P is for Perspective

I have to keep things in perspective.

Renaissance-era perspective in my textbook

Today, on NPR, there was a story about how a lot of young people think that if there had been the internet back in the day, Watergate would have happened differently. They believe that people would have just been able to search and find information about the people sneaking around and the story would have broke differently. In the story, Tina Brown mentions that a lot of young people believe that everything can be found online.

They have no perspective that human contact is a necessary part of life.

The story was about journalism, but it is true in real life as well.

I have seen people - mostly young - who will be standing right next to a person and will start to text or Tweet the person. It is not as though there is a meeting or something going on that will be disturbed if they talk to each other, they are sometimes just sitting next to each other in a mall or in a car.

I have to keep my old-school perspective of actually talking with people who are next to me. I don't want society to become one where actually talking with and communicating in person becomes obsolete. I have heard of people who will Skype their loved one who is upstairs or in another room rather than getting up and walking to go talk with them.

There have been athletes I have coached and seen who were really fast or who jumped really high/far. Sometimes I have to ask athletes a question when they tell me their time or their distance. "You did that. Is that good for you?" Otherwise, I compare it to some of the best I have seen and I might end up unconsciously furling my face at their performance when the nine year old daughter of one of my assistants beats some of the athletes on the team.